Battles of Time
by WeepingAngelXIII
Summary: After the departure of Jo, the Doctor tracks a mysterious unidentified alien object falling from space to Japan, where he and the Brigadier face untold threats.
1. Brave New Girl

Yumi pulled out her makeup set and put it down on her desk and crossed to her wardrobe, picking out the clothes for the evening. It was going to be nothing huge, so she picked out something nice yet casual: a blue pair of shorts and a bright blue little baby-t. Yumi dressed quickly, put on her sandals and checked herself in the mirror. OK, bright outfit sorted.

Now for hair and makeup. Hair first... Yumi shook up her hairspray and fluffed up her long dark hair, spraying it carefully to hold it in place. Big is better. Colour. The orange spray-on hair colour was sprayed over her hair. Yumi checked her reflection again and sprayed in the patches she'd missed.

Perfect nearly. Makeup time! Yumi drew thick lines over her eyelids, flicking the ends outwards in an Egyptian style. She skipped out on mascara and blusher, not really seeing a point today and headed straight onto a bright pink lipstick. It was not bright enough to clash with her hair or her outfit but provided a healthy midway. There was just one thing left...

Her evening handbag lay on the bed by the window. Into it Yumi slid her purse, makeup essentials and (after taking a quick peek out of her bedroom onto the landing and down the stairs, that she was not being observed), drew a small revolver out from under her bed and put it carefully into her bag.

Now, Yumi hadn't killed anybody, and wasn't planning on starting, it was just in this part of Tokyo, she had to be careful. Her friend Tomoyo had been beaten brutally and nearly killed by a gang, a few months ago. There were too many bad people who hung around after dark. It was after that Yumi had started training (privately) to use guns. She knew that if she wanted to go out she had to be able to defend herself. Her parents didn't know. Neither did her little brother. She just wanted to be able to feel strong. Yumi knew she was far too headstrong for her own good, but she still wanted to be safe. Her strength of character may not be so defensive against three or four men her age who could easily overpower her. The boys round here had sometimes no sense of morality. Yumi slung her bag over her shoulder and looked at herself in the mirror. Dressed to kill! Yumi grinned. Now to go and find the guys.

Yumi slipped down the stairs and called out to her mother in the kitchen.

"I'm going out now, mother."

"Keep safe, Yumi." The same response as always.

"I will." And the same reply. Yumi unlocked the front door and went out onto the dark street, the neon lights flashing. Yumi set off at a walk down the street over towards her favourite haunt. The guys would be waiting for her. The streets shone with light but there were not too many people around, strangely enough. Yumi flicked her bright orange hair back. Japan was awesome. She loved it: wouldn't rather be any other nationality. It was great being Japanese. Yumi paused slightly as she saw something in the sky overhead. In Tokyo it was hard to see the sky by any stretch of the imagination (due to the light the city gave off), but this was truly different. A shooting star danced across the sky, whiter and brighter than any star that Yumi had seen before. It was huge, like it was part of a meteorite burning up in the earth's atmosphere. Yeah, that was probably it. Yumi carried on walking down the road. Besides, whatever that thing was, it wasn't going to bother her tonight, if not ever.

How very wrong she was...


	2. Fallen Star

The Doctor looked over at the scanner screen as it reacted. Leaving the TARDIS console he walked over to the screen.

"That's odd," he said out loud, forgetting for half a second that Jo was no longer with him (it still felt strange in a way). He studied the screen, watching the white interference swim across the scanner. It was almost as if something had fallen out of space and through the Earth's atmosphere. The Doctor ran back to the console and flicked a few switches. He glanced back at the screen again. Yes, there definitely was something, falling fast, towards Japan. The Doctor thought. Why did Japan sound familiar? Japan? Japan? Oh yes, of course. The Brigadier had left for the Tokyo UNIT base for some act of overseeing them. He was not really sure why. Lethbridge-Stewart did on occasion have reason to carry on without him. After all, he was free now. He didn't have to stay on Earth all the time.

The Doctor looked at the screen again. There was something odd about this whole thing. To start with, he needed to find out what that thing was. It had come from deep space, by the angle of its fall. He would have to be sure it wouldn't be of danger to the humans living in Japan. The Doctor went back to the console and locked onto the falling object. It's time coordinates were constant. At least that would make it easier to track. It was only moving in space, headed straight for Japan. The Doctor looked at the scanner as it tried to analyse the object. Whatever it was it was it was not a large, and producing a lot of heat. The Doctor brought the TARDIS about, keeping it following the object closely. It had now punched through the atmosphere and was streaking downwards, heating up as it fell. The Doctor watched its progress closely and then realised where it would hit the earth.

"It's going to hit the middle of Tokyo!" He dived for the controls and set the coordinates to follow it. The Brigadier was going to be in for a little bit of a shock...

Yumi watched the star fall for a while, almost forgetting where she was supposed to be. It was so pretty. It was a welcome change against the dark sky. The many streetlamps of Tokyo usually made it rather hard to see the stars on any night. Yumi squinted at it for a few minutes, and then realised she was supposed to be meeting people. Shaking off the thought of the star, she carried on walking, but she couldn't help on occasion looking back up at the star. It was like there was something about the fact it was unusual that kept her watching the star. It was so pretty. It was so pretty in fact that it took her a while to notice that the star was getting bigger. Yumi then chose this as the moment to begin to start wondering. She knew what shooting stars were. It was something to do with meteors or something burning up in the atmosphere. That was what the light was. Yet whatever the shooting star was it really should have burnt up before it got that close. Yumi bit her lip. Now what do you do?

She stopped again and watched the light of the star as it came closer. She had completely stopped now and she wasn't the only one. Other people on the road had stopped and pointed upwards towards the falling star, pointing it out to others. It came closer and closer to where Yumi stood, frozen. She kept her brown eyes fixed on the light above her; it streaked across the tall buildings of Tokyo and over Yumi's head. Everyone on the street watched as it rocketed further down and heard the crash as it hit a few blocks away. Yumi's head was spinning.

_What was all that about?_ she thought. _What was that thing?_ Yumi thought about her friends. They wouldn't miss her for ten minutes. Yumi set off in the direction of the fallen star as commotion began to take place all over the road. She'd just go and take a peek. What harm could it do?

A few streets from where Yumi was now running towards the fallen star, the TARDIS materialised in a back alley in downtown Tokyo. The Doctor stepped out and closed the door behind him. He tapped his sonic screwdriver against the palm of his left hand in a thoughtful way. If he had been lucky, the object would have only hit about a minute or two before he had arrived. It shouldn't be too difficult to find however. Even if the object was as small as he had predicted it to be it would still have announced itself well. Half of Tokyo would have heard the bang. Now all there was to do was to find the object itself, under the assumption it hadn't broken on impact. Right. The Doctor left the TARDIS where it was and proceeded down the alley, unaware that someone had already seen him leave...


	3. Halloween

"What're you doing here?" The Doctor turned. There were three teenage boys standing between him and the TARDIS. They smirked. "It's not Halloween," one of them sniggered, regarding the Doctor's clothing with obvious ridicule. The Doctor sighed and slipped his sonic screwdriver back into his pocket. He really didn't have time for this, but there wasn't really a choice. One of the other boys stepped forward.

"Have you got any money, pal. Got any money on you?"

"No," replied the Doctor, quite truthfully, but they didn't believe him.

"Give us some money."

"And if I don't?" asked the Doctor. "Then what would you do?" The third boy took the liberty of answering this question.

"Smash your face in, pal," he answered, very bluntly. The Doctor folded his arms.

"Go on," he said, making the boys look rather taken aback. "Get on with it." They stood for a second and looked at each other, before coming one at once.

Not one of them even so much as managed to land a punch. The Doctor dodged their blows and struck back quickly. He made to leave as the boys gave up but one of them didn't appear to be down just yet, grabbing a broken bottle from the ground, he aimed it at the Doctor's head, the Doctor turning around and making to grab the offenders arm, but something else had got their first.

Bang!

The bullet shattered the bottle in the boy's hand and both the boy and the Doctor, looked to see who had fired. There was a girl standing at the other end of the alley. Her right hand steady, holding a smoking revolver. He face was set.

"OK, now leave that guy alone now or the next shot'll be aimed at you." The boys took the hint and all three of them ran off. As soon as they were out of sight, the girl's face showed its first sign of uneasy. She put the revolver back in her bag and walked over to the Doctor.

"Are you OK?" she asked. The Doctor smiled at her. "Much appreciated."

"That's fine, Mister."

"Doctor."

"Doctor Who?"

"Just the Doctor will do."

"Oh, I'm Yumi Sauro," said the girl. "Sorry about those guys."

"You know them?"

"By sight," shrugged Yumi. "They're not a nice crowd. Where were you going, anyway?"

"I was looking for something." Yumi looked interested.

"Like what?" The Doctor shook his head.

"No, it doesn't matter." Yumi shrugged.

"Ohy well. Hey, did you see the falling star?" The Doctor looked at her.

"A falling star?"

"Yeah. It hit a few streets away. I was going to meet up with my friends and I got diverted to go and have a look. Thought it might be worth it. That's how I saw you. It's a good thing I did come this way, right?"

"Yumi," asked the Doctor. "Do you think, I could come with you? That star may be what I'm looking for."

"Seriously. Wow," said Yumi. "Sure. Will I get to see something?"

"Perhaps," said the Doctor. "Where did it land?" Yumi pointed down the road.

"That way. I'll show you. Wait!" The Doctor had already set off and Yumi ran off behind him.

"You never told me your real name," she said. The Doctor smiled.

"You never told me, why you are carrying a gun." Yumi bowed her head in shame.

"Precautions," she said. "You can't be sure around here. My mother doesn't know…"

"How did you get it?"

"My friend Tomoyo was badly injured a few months ago. My friends and I decided to have one each, just in case. I've never had to fire it before tonight."

"Well, for someone who has never fired a gun before, that was a good aim."

"What do you mean?"

"You could have hit that boy."

"I…" Yumi looked down, not being able to find anything to say. "It was all I could think of to do." There was a silence, and then Yumi spoke again.

"Are you English?" she asked.

"What makes you think that?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know. I just thought that you looked…"

"Close enough," said the Doctor. "He didn't want Yumi to think she had offended him and for now she seemed to think she had. The girl relaxed a little.

"Sorry," she said. "It's just you can speak very good Japanese for someone who's English."

"Thank you," said the Doctor, and left it at that. "Is it this way?"

"Yeah," replied Yumi as they joined the crowds again. "Just round here."


	4. Burning in it's Crator

Yumi wormed her way through the crowd with ease, throwing glances behind her regularly, to make sure that she was still within eyeshot of the Doctor. The crowd was getting thicker now and Yumi had to be careful not to lose sight of the Doctor. Somehow she had to get to the front of the crowd without losing the Doctor.

Good luck, Yumi!

It was surprisingly easier than she had thought. Yumi squeezed her way to the front of the crowd and looked over what was going on. There were a lot of soldiers surrounding where whatever it was had come down and they were gradually pushing the barriers backwards. Yumi looked up at the Doctor as he came up behind her.

"OK," she said. "Now what?" The Doctor looked thoughtful.

"Hm," he said, casting his eyes around the soldiers. "UNIT."  
"Huh?" asked Yumi. "What's UNIT?"

"It means, Yumi, that I can get in and find out what that thing is."

"What about me?"  
"Stay where you are for the time being. I'll tell you when you can come in." Immediately he ducked the barrier and went under. Yumi sighed.

"Great," she said sarcastically. "And I thought I was going to be able to do something interesting."

"Yumi?" Yumi started and looked behind her.

"Yeah?" she asked and then saw who it was.

"Li?" she asked, looking at the boy behind her. "What's going on?"

"No idea," he replied, but it turns out that whatever's going on it's important. They have soldiers down here. That's gotta be important, right?" Yumi nodded.

"Guess so. Anyway, do you know where the others are?"

"The guys are with me. We came to have a look whilst on the way to meet the rest of you."

"So you've no idea where the rest of the girls are?"

"No, sorry."

"Never mind," said Yumi. "I'm waiting for someone."

"Who?"

"Yumi. Come and look at this." Yumi smiled and pointed towards the Doctor.

"That," she said and ducked under the barrier. A few UNIT soldiers began to approach her but the Doctor's voice called out.

"No, she's with me. It's all right." The soldiers stopped, but Li leaned over the barrier.

"Why, who is he?" he asked.

"That's the Doctor."

"What do you mean by that?" he called after her as she walked off. "What do you mean 'the Doctor'? Doctor who?"

Yumi felt exceedingly important as she weaved her way over to the Doctor and levelled with him. When she came to look at what it was that he was calling her to look at, it was quite frankly a disappointment. It just looked like a lump of metal.

"What's that?" she asked. "A lump of metal?"

"Probably," he responded, taking a funny contraption out of his pocket.

"What's that?"

"Sonic screwdriver," he answered in an almost automatic way as he scanned the lump of metal. Yumi sighed.

"Oh, because that makes sense." She leant in closer. "Sooooooo, what does it tell you."

"It tells me," said the Doctor, without looking up, "that this object here fell through time and space tracks."

"Is that bad?"

"It depends where it came from," the Doctor replied. "Just a minute." He pressed the screwdriver against the metal.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking a sample of the metal's structure," said the Doctor, putting the screwdriver back into his pocket. "I'll need the TARDIS to analyse it completely."

"What's the TARDIS?"

"You are very fond of questions, aren't you, Yumi?"

"Sorry," muttered Yumi. "That's just how I am? So, can I come? Please." The Doctor smiled.

"Come on then." Yumi grinned and whirled back around in the direction they came.

"Back this way, right."

"Yes."

Li watched Yumi and the Doctor leave. Seriously, what was she up too? Gathering the Kurou and Ryouta, he began to follow them. It wasn't as easy as he thought. They seemed to have vanished by the time he passed the subway station. Li cursed. Either he'd taken a wrong turning or been too slow. Either way he couldn't get hold of Yumi right now. Li looked around at his friends as if about to ask what to do next, but was interrupted by a smash of metal on stone. All three froze and followed the sound with their eyes. They gaped when they saw what had made the noise. Standing on the edge of the street where two men, but they didn't look like men. They were made entirely of some kind of metal. Li swallowed and bit his lip as the two metal men began to march down the road towards them.

"Uh oh."


End file.
